


These Eyes Are Blind: The Unauthorized Epilogues

by Helena_Hathaway



Category: Fall Out Boy, My Chemical Romance, Panic! at the Disco
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst and Humor, Blind Character, Blindness, Happy Ending, M/M, Sequel, Unofficial Sequel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-11
Updated: 2020-02-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:00:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22670620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Helena_Hathaway/pseuds/Helena_Hathaway
Summary: A series of 5 final chapters for the story These Eyes Are Blind, of which I was a coauthor along with mcr_rockstar. This work is unauthorized because I'm writing it as a solo author.
Relationships: Frank Iero/Gerard Way, Mikey Way/Pete Wentz
Comments: 38
Kudos: 128





	1. Episode 1: The Letter

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [These Eyes Are Blind](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2416469) by [Helena_Hathaway](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Helena_Hathaway/pseuds/Helena_Hathaway), [mcr_rockstar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mcr_rockstar/pseuds/mcr_rockstar). 



> All of the chapters to follow will be dubbed epilogues, because the story that mcr_rockstar and myself wrote is over. This is an unauthorized conclusion, meaning I didn't ask for permission, which is why I'm classifying it as a separate fic altogether. This is how I personally saw the story ending. That doesn't mean this is a conclusive ending.
> 
> I have a lot of guilt in posting this. Mcr_rockstar and I, we didn't have a bad relationship with each other, but we left each other on rocky terms. I have absolutely no ill will towards her, and I sorely and adamantly hope that she's doing great. She and I made something really amazing together, and I will never have animosity towards her. I recognize that if she reads this, she'll be angry with me, and that's why I feel bad. The reason I'm writing this is because I truly and utterly believe in this story. I think it is an amazing piece that we did together, and I want it to have something of a conclusion.
> 
> To Mcr_rockstar: I'm afraid of sending this to you directly, because I'm aware you're going to be mad at me. I'm sorry. I don't know how else to phrase it. It's not my aim to make you angry, it's not my aim to cut you out. It's just my aim for readers to get the ending that this story deserves. I have mad respect for you. I just hope you can forgive me.

“Frank, you’ve got a letter,” his mom says when Gerard opens the door for him. He stops in his tracks, letting the spring air come into the house because he’s suddenly forgotten how to close a door.

A letter? A letter. She wouldn’t bother telling him in that tone of voice if it weren’t a very special type of letter. It’s _the_ letter. It’s the first one in a long series of letters to come, but this is the first one, and hopefully it’s the one he wants the most. 

“Who’s it from?” Frank asks.

“NYU,” she says. Oh fuck. That’s the one he’s been waiting for. That’s the actual fucking letter. All of the moisture vanishes from his mouth. He’s most certainly pale to begin with, but he can’t imagine how much paler he becomes in this moment. 

Gerard had done the actual applying for him. He was the one with the computer on his lap making Frank seem like the most perfect candidate. Frank wrote the essays and took the ACT, he did all the goddamn leg work, he just needed Gerard for the intricacies of the actual filling out of college applications. 

“Fuck, okay, I’m gonna sit,” Frank says, and he walks over to the dining room table so that he can either steady his breathing or his shaky legs. He drops his cane on the table, not 

“I haven’t opened it yet,” she says, and he hears her walk towards the table, and Gerard does as well, so that they’re all sitting at the table like a family, which is cute. This is a constant, in all actuality. Gerard and Frank are going on five months now and Gerard eats dinner at Frank’s house most days. Sometimes they eat at Gerard’s place, but Gerard’s mother is the first to admit that she would be nowhere without hamburger helper, which makes feeding Frank difficult because he’s a vegetarian. Gerard has learned that vegetarian food can actually be good, so long as Frank’s mom is the one to make it. Otherwise it’s very leafy and not an enjoyable experience. 

“Okay, which one of you is reading it to me,” Frank asks. He doesn’t 

Gerard and his mom both look at each other waiting for the other to say they’ll do it, and they have this silent conversation for at least thirty seconds.

“I’ll do it,” Gerard says finally. He doesn’t want to do it, because if it’s a rejection letter, he doesn’t want to be the one who has to say those words out loud. If NYU have the absolute gall not to let in the most perfect man in all of existence, Gerard will come swinging, but if they make _him_ read it out to Frank, he’s shedding some blood, and not his own. 

Frank’s ears hear everything that his eyes don’t see. He hears the envelope being pushed across the table by his mom towards Gerard. He hears Gerard’s fingers hesitant to pick it up. He hears it being picked up, and he hears the envelope opening, hears Gerard struggling to tear it open enough to get what’s inside out. He waits for years for the damn thing. 

They all take in deep breaths as Frank feels Gerard unfolding the letter in his hands. Frank is ready to cry. He’s ready to do it. He and Gerard have an entire plan. The plan is only one of the reasons for why he wants to go to this school, but they literally made a plan. It’s all been decided. For basically the next four years, they’ve decided it. It cannot crumble now, it simply can’t. 

The plan is simple enough. When he graduated high school, Gerard was too worried about the cost to attend college, that’s why he got stuck in the comic book store. It was never meant to be his end goal. Just a means to make something close to an income so that he could one day attend college. And then, a little over three months ago he said that he was time. Gerard doesn’t want to sell comic books that other people have made anymore. He wants to write them himself. He’s ready. Now that he knows it’s happening; he’s never been more excited. He’s starting college about three years later than most people do, but he doesn’t care. He knows now that this is something he wants to do, something that he _needs_ to do. He can’t support both himself and Frank working in a comic book store, not forever anyway. 

Part of the decision for it happening _now_ is because he’s ready to move out of his parent’s house. He’s ready to live on his own for the first time, and he’s ready to live in a big city, because little towns in Jersey just aren’t cutting it. But a lot of it is because he’s ready to live with Frank. In the big city together. It would be a dream come true, for the both of them. 

They have a shared dream of New York. Not indefinitely, but New York is calling to them. Gerard can’t quite explain what it is inside of him, but he knows he has to live there for a little while. Then he has to come back to Jersey. Maybe he’ll give California a go. Maybe they’ll try out London. They can go anywhere, the two of them. But they’re starting in New York.

Half of the plan is already locked down. Gerard got his letter from The School of Visual Arts two weeks ago. Now comes the rest of the plan. NYU. Come on, it has to be an acceptance. It just has to be. They will both be more than heartbroken if it isn’t. 

It’s a freakishly amazing coincidence that their two goals happen to reside a few blocks from each other. Gerard at his art school, and Frank at the school he told his school advisor he was going to go to as early as four years ago. 

It all changes one way or another right now.

“Dear Mr. Iero,” Gerard says, and the wind stops blowing. The birds stop chirping. Everything waits. “It is with great pleasure…. oh my god, oh my god, okay, sorry, I have to finish, it is with great pleasure that I write to inform you that you have been accepted for admission to New York University.”

“Fucking hell,” Frank says, putting his head against the table. He doesn’t know how to react. He doesn’t know what to feel. He doesn’t even know how to function. He’s in. They accepted him. This is it.

He can tell his mom is ecstatic, possibly without the right words, because she’s not even reprimanding him for his language. Someone’s banging excitement against the table with their hands, he feels it shaking.

Gerard’s voice in his peripheral becomes fuzzy. Frank can tell that he’s still talking, but he doesn’t hear it. He got it, he got what he’s wanted more than anything for so long. He’s going to NYU. He’s going to the school that he has been fucking dreaming about since he was like in middle school. It started out as him just wanting to be in New York, because he’s enchanted by the city, but now that college is on the horizon, it’s been about him actually fucking wanting to go to NYU. And it certainly helps that Gerard’s going to a school in the same city. 

“Oh my god,” Gerard says, and there’s a certain tone to his voice that makes Frank’s head dart up as if to look at him, which he does not because Frank is blind. The birds and wind are still in limbo. The world has stopped turning, groaning angrily as it resists the halt, wanting to keep pushing on. But the earth cannot continue to rotate while Gerard’s voice leaves the oxygen feeling this way. 

“Gerard, sweetie, what is it?” His mom asks sounding desperate, telling Frank that she also sensed the tonal shift. 

“Frank…” Gerard’s voice seems almost monotonous in its incredulity. “You got a full ride scholarship.”

Frank’s mom puts her hand over her mouth, and almost in an instant, tears begin to well up. She’s in disbelief. Her Frankie? Her little boy?

“What?” Frank’s voice sounds like a whisper. 

“Frankie, they’ve given you a scholarship. It’s four years. It’s the whole thing. Based on your disability and ‘high academic achievements.’”

“Oh, that last part is bullshit,” Frank says laughing, but honestly? He doesn’t give a shit. He’s had a tough fucking life and he’s going to take all the money that school can throw at him. 

“I’m so proud of you,” he feels arms wrap around him, they belong to his mother, and she begins kissing every single part of his face that she can get to. He’s literally being smothered, and it’s fine. He’s absolutely okay with it.

He’s going to college. At the school of his dreams. And Gerard’s school is basically right down the fucking street. He’s going to get an apartment. With his boyfriend. And they’re going to go become smart. Gerard is going to write a comic book. Frank isn’t sure what the fuck he’s going to do. Something to do with music, that’s all he knows. Music therapy, music business, music technology, any of the programs that Gerard read off to him on the website. He’s going to fucking thrive. Him and Gerard. Taking on the world. Together. 

At some point, he falls into Gerard’s arms, Gerard kissing him about as much as his mom had. Except Gerard’s kissing him on the mouth, which makes him feel all sorts of ways. His mom doesn’t need to know that they have sex a lot. She can just be blissfully ignorant of that. But it’s like _a lot_. Like they’re batting average is at more than there are days in a week _per week_. 

He forgets about that. He almost forgets about Gerard in his entirety. All he can think about is being in New York. Walking down the street in one of the most amazing cities in the world. Gerard told him they’re going to go to a dozen Broadway shows. He’s going to take him to all the shows that are “basically just all singing, dialogue is stupid anyway” like Les Mis, and Joseph. They’re going to have an apartment which they’re not going to be able to afford, even with Frank’s scholarship. They’re going to be really out there. Living life. Existing. 

“My baby, oh my gosh, my baby,” he hears his mom chanting. He’s totally numb. This can’t all be happening. Mere weeks from the end of the semester, barely a week before he’s taking Gerard to prom, and this is happening now. He was worried he wouldn’t get any responses back at all, all the colleges would just laugh him off, and now so close to graduating, he’s gotten a letter saying that not only has his dream come true, but he also doesn’t have to pay for it. The one time he’s ever going to be glad to be blind. 

“I love you so much, I’m so proud of you,” Gerard says, almost like he’s whispering it into his ear. How has one of them not pulled him out of his chair already? He’s being pulled by one and then the other into big hugs. He’s not sure he could stand right now if he had to, he’s literally shaking. 

“I’m like…” Frank starts, trails off, and then decides to forego a conclusion of that sentence. He doesn’t know what he is.

“I’m so excited!” he hears his mom saying, “my two boys, living their dreams.” The way she calls Gerard that makes Frank’s heart swell up a little bit. Yeah. Her two boys. That’s what they are. Her two boys going to New York, becoming college educated real world human beings. They can both be exactly who they want to be, and they can do it together.


	2. Episode 2: Prom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Just desserts.

“My tux is pink,” Pete says.

“If it is, I’m actually going to deck you,” Frank says, because Pete has to be lying. He has to be. Right? No one would ever let Pete take them to the prom in a pink tuxedo. This is the second time in the last two weeks Frank has been glad that he’s blind. 

“My tux is neon orange,” Mikey says, and that Frank knows is a joke. The problem with Pete is that Frank isn’t willing to put it past him to get a pink tux. Mikey would never do such a thing. Would Mikey stop Pete from doing that though? That’s a dynamic yet to be fully fleshed out.

It’s been about a month since the miraculous discovery of Mikey and Pete dating. Literally no one knew it was happening. Mikey hadn’t even told anyone he was bisexual. Mikey is very good at keeping secrets, so the fact that he was able to hide both of those things is no surprise to anyone, but the fact that Pete didn’t say anything either? How is that possible? How did Pete, their blabbermouth idiot of a friend Pete, manage to keep that under wraps? Pete can’t rest without telling you what song he listened to while brushing his teeth, how did he keep an entire boyfriend a secret? 

The reason they kept it secret is something they still haven’t told anyone. All anyone knows is that Pete and Mikey are going to the prom together, and that’s just how it goes. Frank doesn’t have a guess, but one things he knows for certain is that Mikey was the one to keep it hidden, Frank just wishes he knew for how long and why. He guesses it has something to do with the fact that Mikey is just like that. 

“Don’t worry babe, my tux is black,” Gerard says, kissing the top of Frank’s head. Frank’s living room is not big enough to house all of these people inside of it, but his mom was adamant that she be the one to take prom pictures. The whole crew is together plus Brendon and Patrick’s girlfriends that Frank has met a few times. And Pete might be wearing a pink suit and that will be memorialized in pictures that Frank can never see.

“Is he actually wearing a pink suit?” Frank asks.

“Don’t tell him!” Pete says very suddenly and loudly. “It will remain a secret for all time. No one tell him.”

“Sorry, Frankie,” Gerard says, and Frank is both pissed and impressed. He’ll weasel it out of Gerard eventually.

“What shade of pink are we talking?”

“Like a baby pink,” Pete says

“I don’t know what that is.”

“You don’t know what pink is, do you Frank?”

“No I do not,” Frank says. 

“Everyone, get together!” His mom has to shout over them all to be heard. There is so not enough room in the living room for this. The light in front of the house is broken so they can’t take the pictures outside which has greatly pissed off his mom. She had planned everything out but then the sun went down in so did her dreams. 

“I’m the cutest person here, right?” Frank asks.

“Oh, by a landslide,” Gerard assures him, adjusting Frank’s boutonniere. Brendon argues with that statement, but no one really cares what he has to say.

At least a hundred photos are taken, and those are just the group photos. She also has to take pictures of all of them separately and with their dates. Frank and Gerard are kissing in a lot of the pictures. Gerard’s bright red hair is the only thing that Frank can see in the entire room but saying that he sees it is a bit of an overstatement. He can definitely sense redness. There’s definitely a floating blob of red. But anything else? No. Just red. 

His heart aches a little bit. He doesn’t know what anyone in this room looks like, aside from his mom, but those are only memories. He knows what he looked like when he was a little kid, but he has absolutely no comprehension of what he looks like now. Does he even look like the same person? Would he recognize his face if he got to see these pictures? He surely wouldn’t know anyone else. What does everyone else look like? He literally doesn’t even know what color hair anyone has besides Gerard. He knows nothing. 

“You okay?” Gerard asks him, his voice warm. Gerard’s mouth is very close to his. He’s excited to kiss it. He loves being close to Gerard. He loves everything about Gerard. He wants to climb Gerard like a tree. Gerard told him they couldn’t have sex in the bathroom of the hotel where prom is being held, so they did it this morning, and they will again as soon as they get back. Frank likes being loved, and he also likes being fucked. 

He is really looking forward to their apartment where they can be extremely loud about it. Frank’s gotten to hear Gerard moan only a handful of times, because it’s either Frank’s house with his mom a hallway down, or it’s Gerard’s house which has three whole people to not disturb. It’s an adventure. Frank’s mom knows. She hasn’t said anything but she most definitely knows. So long as Gerard and Frank are discreet about it, he thinks she’ll remain silent on the matter, but it is still a fact that Frank’s mom knows he’s had sex. He just hopes she doesn’t know how much.

Gerard’s moans though. Christ, if that isn’t the best sound in the world. He wants nothing besides that sound ever. Frank’s other senses are heightened because of the whole being blind thing, so when he hears Gerard moan: _fuck_. When Gerard touches him: _fuck_. Everything Gerard is all that Frank cares about. 

Frank has to stop thinking about this, because he’s not going to get a boner in his living room before prom with everyone, he knows looking at him. He wonders what Gerard’s eyes look like. Gerard has told him they’re brown, but Frank forgot what brown looks like a long time ago. He can tell Gerard is squishy, but he wants to know how squishy. Frank wants to know just how pale Gerard really is. He wants to know everything. 

“Ma, I think we have to go,” Frank says, he needs to take his mind off of whatever it is his mind is on. His mother protests lightly, but he finally convinces her that they do need to go. The lot of them were too cheap for a limo, so they’re doing something even sexier than a limo which is Brendon’s mom’s minivan.

“Guys, if any of you even thinks about having sex in this car, I will skin you alive,” Brendon says as they all shovel into a van that really smells like a minivan. What that smell is, even Frank with his super nose cannot describe, but it’s most definitely a minivan smell.

“I don’t think you need to intimidate anyone on earth to not have sex in a minivan,” Gerard says.

It’s a tight squeeze, but everyone manages to get into the van, but only because a few people are sitting on laps. It’s definitely not legal, but they work around it. A minivan is cheaper than a limo, and all the limos in town have been booked already because it’s fucking _prom_.

“Mikey is sitting on Pete’s lap,” Gerard reports to him. Him and Gerard are lucky and have two seats of their own. Frank has special privileges. He can’t see. In a moving car where you can’t possibly get a seat belt over two people, it would be a recipe for disaster if the blind guy wasn’t buckled in.

“His ass is so fucking bony!” Pete shouts. “Did you get your bones professionally sharpened?” 

“I can and will break up with you at the prom,” Mikey says. 

“But we’re nominated for prom kings, you can’t do that to me,” Pete says.

Frank tunes them out and rests his head on Gerard’s shoulder. Frank has never worn a suit before. His mom bought it for him as a present because she said he’ll need a suit all the time in college, which seems like a weird prophecy, but he’s sure she must have some logic behind that declaration.

“You look really cute.”

“You look really blank and nonexistent,” Frank responds.

“Your boutonniere matches my hair,” Gerard tells him. Frank wishes he could picture it. A red rose on his lapel. He can smell it, which is a relief because it sort of clouds the minivan smell. No one besides Frank would be able to smell it, but again, super nose.

Frank really misses flowers. He really does have to stop to smell the flowers, because he can’t see them. He wishes he could see them though. He’s gotten pretty good at telling them apart just based on smell, because what else does he have to work with? If you put your fingers all over a flower you crush it and then it’s ugly probably. He didn’t realize as a kid that all flowers smell different. He thought they really all were the same exact smell, but they are all irrevocably different. They don’t smell as good as Gerard, but then again, nothing does. 

Frank had picked Gerard out a boutonniere as well, but he just picked one that smelled nice in the shop. Apparently, it’s white. Frank’s matches Gerard’s hair, and he supposes that Gerard’s matches Frank’s skin.

“I love you so much you know,” Frank says, and he finds Gerard’s hand and mixes their fingers together. Gerard’s hand is rather bony, apparently not unlike Mikey’s ass, but he’s going to choose not to think about Mikey’s ass. He knows a few things about what the guys look like and one thing he knows for certain is that Mikey is lanky and pointy. He’s also heard that Brendon has a big forehead.

“Enough not to cut off my toes?”

“Hm, we’ll see.”

Frank could almost fall asleep in the van. With his head against Gerard’s shoulder and everything around him completely black. The motion of the van from the backseat is oddly rhythmic and calming. He puts his nose to Gerard’s neck for just moment so that he can smell him. God, Gerard smells good. 

“Are you going to vote for Pete and Mikey for prom king?” Frank whispers.

“I’m going to stuff the box,” Gerard shrugs, Frank can feel the shrug with his head still on his shoulder. “He’s my brother. I think it’ll be a good story.”

“Too bad we weren’t nominated,” Frank says. There was no way anyone was ever going to nominate Frank, because Frank is still an asshole to most people, and Gerard doesn’t attend their school so that wasn’t going to happen either. He doesn’t think he would’ve wanted to be prom royalty; he just wishes he could show Gerard off. He’s going to walk up into prom with Gerard on his arm bragging that Gerard is his. He’s sure that they’d both look good in a crown though. 

“Ah fuck, apparently we gotta pay for parking,” Brendon says when they reach the hotel. They all groan.

“I’ve got a candy bar in my suit,” Frank says. “It’s fun size though.”

“Ugh, I guess I’ve got it,” Ray says, because he’s apparently the only person who has cash. Frank is willing to forgive the girls for not having their wallets because they’re wearing dresses, but really, there should be more than one person who one, has a wallet, and two, has cash in said wallet.

Brendon drives around for a while trying to find a “good” parking spot, while everyone in the car yells at him to just take any parking spot, because apparently there are many. He finally decides on a spot that he deems to be good enough, while Frank and Gerard have started making out, and it’s entirely possible that Brendon only picks a parking spot so that he can get them to stop making out.

“I said no sex!” Brendon calls out.

“It’s not sex, we’re just kissing!” Frank says.

“If I can see that much of your tongue, I’m counting it as sex.”

“I’m getting out of the car,” Patrick says loudly to decrease tension.

Piling out of the car is far more difficult than it had been getting in. There’s a step down so Gerard takes Frank’s hand and helps him down. Like always, Gerard put his hand on Frank’s waist, and guides him in the right direction. Frank holds his cane in his hand, but decides not to put it together, because he doesn’t foresee needing it right now. He mostly just brought it as a security blanket. Even if Gerard never leaves his side all night, he would steal feel lost without it, as had been proven many times over the semester because of a certain piece of shit football player.

Almost as if on cue, while they’re still walking through the parking lot, Frank hears the sound of his least favorite person in the world calling out to them. 

“Look at that, it’s the homos!” Blake’s voice calls. “I can’t even believe they let you into prom, it’s absolutely disgusting.”

He’s close by, Frank can tell approximately where he is based on his voice alone, but he asks Gerard just to confirm it for him, “Which direction is he in?” 

“Um, like to your left?” Gerard says.

Frank lets go of Gerard’s arm, snaps together his cane and walks in that direction. 

“I’m sorry Blake, can you repeat that?” Frank says, heading towards him. He needs Blake to say something else so that he can figure out exactly where he is.

“You heard me,” Blakes voice is merely a foot from where Frank is now standing. Frank smiles at him, really big and bright. And then he takes his knee and drives it home.

His estimate was absolutely spot on. Frank’s knee meets Blake dead center in the crotch, and he buckles. He makes a strangled sound and then quite literally falls to the ground. Frank can feel the air around him as he goes down, and he snorts out a little bit. He doesn’t stop to look at his handiwork, because he wouldn’t be able to see it anyway. Really, he just wants to make a dramatic exit. 

Frank puts his hand out welcomingly, like he’s reaching for Gerard. Gerard takes it, but he is stood, standing incredulously back at Frank’s victim. He’s awestruck. He’s never been prouder of Frank ever. The only thing that upsets him is that Gerard wasn’t the one to do it. He’s been asking Frank if he could beat Blake up for months now, but Frank told him no because of this goddamn thing called “assault charges.”

“I’ve been meaning to do that,” Frank says.

“Oh my god, Frank,” Gerard gasps. 

“Awesome!” Brendon says, with a laugh to his voice. 

“What are they gonna do, expel me?” Frank says, with a shrug. It’s Frank, not Gerard, who ends up leading them into the hotel. He stows his cane away and walks out into the night, not even giving two fucks to rub together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please leave a comment if you enjoyed!

**Author's Note:**

> As much as I hope you all enjoy this, please have an intense (INTENSE) amount of love and respect for my wonderful coauthor mcr_rockstar. This wouldn't be possible without her. Please leave comments, this work has been a long time coming for all of us!


End file.
